Court rules against deportation of Abu Qatada to Jordan

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in the case Othman (Abu Qatada) v. the United Kingdom, which is not final, that Omar Othman (also known as Abu Qatada) would be at real risk of a grossly unfair trial if deported to Jordan, where he is wanted on terrorism charges.

The European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that, if Mr Othman were deported to Jordan:

• There would be no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights;
• There would be no violation of Article 5 (right to liberty and security) of the Convention; but that
• There would be a violation of Article 6 (right to a fair trial), given the real risk of the admission of evidence obtained by torture at his retrial.

The Court also held, unanimously, that there had been no violation of Article 13 (right to an effective remedy).

The applicant, Omar Othman (Abu Qatada), is a Jordanian national who was born in 1960 near Bethlehem, then part of Jordan. He is currently detained in prision in England. He is suspected of having links with al-Qaeda.

Mr Othman arrived in the United Kingdom in September 1993 and made a successful application for asylum, in particular on the basis that he had been detained and tortured by the Jordanian authorities in 1988 and 1990-1. He was recognised as a refugee in 1994, being granted leave to remain until June 1998.

While his subsequent application for indefinite leave to remain was pending, he was detained in October 2002 under anti-terrorism legislation and in August 2005 he was served with a notice of intention to deport him to Jordan.

Mr Othman appealed against that decision. He had been convicted in Jordan, in his absence, of involvement in two terrorist conspiracies in 1999 and 2000. Mr Othman claimed that, if deported, he would be retried, which would put him at risk of torture, lengthy pre-trial detention and a grossly unfair trial based on evidence obtained by the torture of his co-defendants.

The case went to the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords before Mr Othman lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights in February 2009.

The European Court has now ruled that, in the absence of any assurance by Jordan that the torture evidence would not be used against Mr Othman, his deportation to Jordan to be retried would give rise to a flagrant denial of justice in violation of Article 6.